Push-Up Exercise Tips for More Muscle Power
Enjoy Whole-Body Strengthening Without Any Fancy Equipment!
A great body position on push-ups, makes the exercise so much easier to do! And with great technique you’ll be getting a lot more bang for your buck from every repetition to improve your upper body strength and fitness.
Push-ups in Pilates normally are done at the end of a Mat workout, but they’re a great exercise that you can do anytime, anywhere without any fancy equipment to maintain your fitness.
To Start the Exercise:
- Stand with your feet in a V-position, arms extended over your head.
- Walk your hands down the front of your body while you bend forward to reach the floor.
- Walk your hands out on the mat taking 3-5 steps to get into a long and strong push-up position.
While you are getting into your push-up position…the following things should happen in this order:
- Heels lengthen away from the head
- Tailbone tucks under and reaches towards the heels
- Lower abdominals lift up and in
- Glutes & Inner thighs squeeze
- Shoulder blades pull down the back
- Spine lengthens through the top of the head
To do a Push-Up and keep a great body position, the sequence of what happens is really important.
Inhale to lower the whole-body, exhale, pull the low belly up, shoulders down, then engage the muscles under the shoulders, around the ribcage and into the belly to help lift the body up while straightening the arms.
Here’s a video clip with my fitness tips and a Push-Up demo to help you improve your body position and Push-Up power.
Have Fun Practicing Your Push-Ups!
Core Fitness: Gain Abdominal Strength for Sit-Ups and Pilates Matwork with the Half-Sit Back Exercise
One of the biggest challenges for beginner (and sometimes) experienced Pilates students is being able to easily execute a full straight legged sit-up on the Pilates Mat exercises the Roll-Up and Neck Pull.
This modified ½ sit-back exercise is a great one to help gain strength and mobility to roll backwards to the mat with control, AND be able to efficiently roll back up to a sit – articulating through the spine and using the abs.
Discover fitness tips on how to execute a great half-sit back, and how this exercise can help strengthen your abs and improve your core fitness with this second video in my Core Training Tips series:
